Sprint early upgrade program in the works, promises to 'One Up' the competition

Sprint abandons its 'One Up' early upgrade plan after just a few months (updated)

It appears Sprint's answer to T-Mobile's UnCarrier campaign hasn't been quite the success the company hoped it would be. Less than four months after it announced its "One Up" early upgrade plan, Big Yellow began phasing out the tariff from January 9th and is now directing online customers to its new "Framily" plan instead. With Framily, Sprint is attempting to drive down the cost of friends and family plans by rewarding customers with lower monthly fees for each additional person they add (up to 10) to a single account. The One Up plan, however, was specifically designed to reduce the cost of upgrading to a brand-new smartphone every year. Sprint has yet to indicate whether its Framily plan is a direct replacement for One Up or whether we can expect a reinvention of the early upgrade plan in the future -- we've asked Sprint what it plans to do next and will update you should we receive a response.

Update: While Sprint has axed its One Up plan, it is providing a couple of similar alternatives. The first, called Sprint Easy Pay, allows customers to buy a device for a smaller down payment and then pay off the rest of the device over 24 monthly installments. With its Framily plan, Sprint also provides an upgrade option for subscribers who sign-up for the $20 unlimited data add-on. Once they've had the package enabled on their account for 12 consecutive months, they'll be able to trade in their device for a newer model.